Lakshmipriya Devi on the cathartic experience of making ‘Boong’

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. In Lakshmipriya Devi’s directorial debut Boong, which had its world premiere at TIFF 2024, a 10-year old child is told to lead a prayer recital at his school in Imphal, Manipur.

“Like a virgin," he solemnly recites, the entire school assembly repeating after him, “touched for the very first time… when your heart beats next to mine, gonna give you all my love, boy." The cheeky scene says a lot about the mischievous kid, Boong (played by Gugun Kipgen), at the heart of the film. He and his mother Mandakini (played with a stoic elegance by Bala Hijam) are a tight team.

The third figure in their family, father Joykumar, isn’t in the picture—he’s off in the city of Moreh, on the border of Myanmar, running an ostensibly successful teak furniture shop and seems to have ceased all communication with his family. But both Mandikini and Boong believe that he’ll return, with the latter leaving a series of voicemails on his father’s phone urging him to come home as a “gift" for Mandakini on Holi.

Holi comes and goes with no sign of the father, and so of course the precocious and well-intentioned Boong decides to head to Moreh with his best friend, Raju, to find him and bring him back. Set in the 1990s, the film unfolds against a backdrop of simmering political tension, and we see how the antipathy of Manipur residents towards “outsiders," the separatist movement, and a conservative local government all impact daily life in the state.

The film deftly handles moments both lighthearted and sombre, taking an unexpected turn with an audacious and delightful red herring before ultimately revealing the reason behind Joykumar’s mysterious absence. Mint caught up with Devi at TIFF to hear more about the film